I was late (well, later than usual) to work this morning. My normal route is very simple -- I get on the freeway right by my house, drive about 7 miles, get off the freeway right by my office.

This morning when I got on the freeway, traffic was practically at a standstill. This is particularly strange, since it was past rush hour.

Well, traffic continued at a snail's pace for about 5 miles. We'd drive for a bit, then stop, then inch forward, then drive, then stop again. Very aggravating!

I figured there must be a bad accident up ahead, to have caused so much congestion. Eventually I inched forward enough to see construction signs. Construction? But there wasn't anything going on just last night...?

Then I noticed that the "right lane closed" signs were temporary, made of plastic that can easily be moved and stowed. Weird. Finally I made it up to the lane closure (which was just blocked off with orange cones, not barrels), to find that the lane was only closed for about 20 yards. I drove past the closed lane and looked into it to see:

A guy on a ladder.

Seriously. Just a guy, standing on a yellow step ladder in the middle of the right lane. The ladder wasn't under anything, it was just there. The guy wasn't doing anything that I could see, just standing on it.

I crawled through 30 minutes of traffic jam for this? A guy on a ladder?? What is this, some sort of modern art? Immediately after the ladder-guy, the lane opened up and traffic started moving again. Very surreal. At least it made for a good story, when I finally made it into work....

Although I feel terrible when people are hurt, I at least feel somewhat ... justified? vindicated? not sure, none of those work ... when I've been caught in traffic, and finally pass the twisted wreckage of a huge accident.

On the other hand, what seems to happen all too often is that traffic slows to a standstill for half and hour ... and when you finally reach "it," you find that everyone is slowing down to 15mph so that the cop on the side of the road won't catch them, or something similarly lame. I've told Kim that if she ever catches me rubbernecking like that, she can slap some sense into me :)

It can be a bit less frustrating when you see the cause of the backup. I'm still not used to traffic on my commute. Half the time when there's a backup on I-85 down here, there's no discernible reason for it. (I've written more than enough about the times when I *have* seen the causes.)

Monday night I got to witness this across the street while I waited for the light to change:

http://www.coloradoan.com/news/stories/20041116/news/1598659.html

and today's followup:

http://www.coloradoan.com/news/stories/20041117/news/1604986.html

Pretty nasty. The truck did go airborne, while the bumpers and other bits of plastic slid across the intersection and the buick, turned 90 degrees by the impact, slowly rolled up to the restaurant. It's a sickly feeling to see this unfold and then be stuck on the other side of the intersection with traffic whizzing by and unable to do anything, especially when you see those twisted heaps of metal and noone in them moving.